From San Antonio Rd. Took wrong branch of road once, which led me to a long-abandoned homestead. After I found the actual right road, it was a cruise. Nice views of the Central Valley. No signs of any No Trespassing signs, & any gates were open.

Hiked in from the gate at San Antonio Road. I didn't see a single "No Tresapssing" sign at the gate or along the road, so I guess we were ok. Did this one as a night hike under a full moon but storm clouds obscured much of the light and views. The only wildlife we saw was a skunk, and way to close! Very fun though. Hiked with Erik.

Did it over the Coe Backcountry Weekend. Unfortunately it was a dry year and the hills were brown, and over 90 degrees. Had good company though. The ranchowners mid-way through the hike were nice enough give us a ride a couple miles to their property and let up pass through w/o using the trail detour on the way out.

I parked on the South side of the cattle guard which is approximately one hundred yards south of the gate which leads towards the Hunting Club Lands as well as Shanti Ashrama. There were native Tule Elk in the Valley when I arrived and wildflowers in full bloom so I picked a nice day. I started the hike around 12PM. I used the Mt. Stakes quad as my map and most of the fireroads exist as per the map. Use your intuition and you'll find your way. Heavy rain this year so a lot of stream crossings all the way to the point where the fireroads ascend into the chapparal slopes. I placed a summit register at Mt. Stakes in a cheap tupperware container and put underneath rocks near the USGS marker. Hope it survives a while. Also bagged Black Mtn, which is just .7 miles to the North. Tule Elk were seen again on my exit. No problem with my truck. Stats: 13 Miles, 2200 Feet elevation gain. Took about 4.25 hours. Once you leave the valley the chapparal slopes allow for increasingly expansive views as you ascend to the summit of Mt. Stakes. A highly enjoyable solo journey into a rough gem of the always appealing Diablo Range.

Used a bike until the upper Red Creek (beginning of Mt Stakes trail) then hiked to the summit using "almost" legal route. Took 16 hrs total, 65 miles roundtrip. Going through Orestimba and Red Creek canyon is the most beautiful experience

Most difficult part of the hike was navigating through a massive herd of cows as the sun was setting. They were menacing in their numbers!

The trail is easy to follow, although marking all the listed junctions found on a Topo map (and putting them in a GPS unit) was quite useful. The top ridgeline is like a super-highway of jeep roads--what were they thinking? Whatever the case, the summit is pretty uninspiring, but the hike is quite nice, including the portion through the gun club lands (probably not nice if there are people actually using the land, though).

Went over to nearby Black Mountain (3/4 mile north on the Topo map), but was disappointed to discover there is no USGS marker there (confirmed later when I checked the USGS database). All in all, an unexpectedly enjoyable hike, with a big sigh of relief upon returning to see my car still intact.

Summited this peak with rgreene. It was a nice casual walk through the park. Beware, the jeep roads on the TOPO are not maintained with the state park. They're there if you look for them but very overgrown. Nice warm up hike to get some miles on the legs.

The dual ridges, bushwhacking, and length of the trip made it an adventure. High points were (several times) stumbling into a clearing while following a non-existant jeep road, and finding a nice "Mt. Stakes Trail" intersection marker for another non-existant trail.